You may think it's a bit late to start planning your frugal Christmas - but be positive - there's plenty of time to start planning for Christmas 2013!
Frugal is not mean, miserly or miserable - it's being wise with your money to make it stretch further in the direction you want it to. It's a kind of game and if you're up for the challenge - you can get a bit of a buzz out of your bargains and your wheeling and dealing.

Wednesday, 24 October 2012

Tom Smith came up with the idea for Christmas crackers in 1847, seven years after a trip to Paris, where he had seen the French "Bon-Bon", a sugared almond wrapped in a twist of paper. He used the idea, adding a love motto to his version and then, after being inspired by the "cracking" noise of logs on his fire, came up with the "snap".

The cracker began to evolve and grow in popularity and Smith's business moved to larger premises in Finsbury Square, London. Later on, his sons Tom, Walter and Henry took over the business after his death and a drinking fountain was erected in Finsbury Square to commemorate the man who had invented the cracker.

Walter later introduced the paper hat in the cracker and scoured the world for unusual (and small!) gifts to include inside.

The company created crackers for the Suffragettes, Charlie Chaplin, the Coronation and war heroes. Crackers were also made for the Royal Family and still are to the present day.

These beautiful wrapping paper origami stars can be made from all those little scraps of Christmas paper that we all have left over! You can hang them on your tree or perhaps even make several and join them together for Christmas bunting.

All you need is a 6" square of left over wrapping paper and small buttons, or other embellishments for the centre.

That's it - I'm starting Christmas blogging again and it's not even Halloween yet! I usually like to resume my frugal Christmas blogging once we've got that out of the way, but I'm seeing some really good moneysaving gift ideas around so - deep breath, I'm making a start!Happy Frugal Christmas shopping!